The present invention relates to an absorbent article provided with a decorative element and more particularly to disposable pull-on diaper, open-type diaper, training pants, incontinence pants and the analogous articles provided with the decorative element such as picture, letters or symbols displayed in a waist region of the article.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Publication No. 2002-657A discloses an absorbent article such as a disposable diaper comprising a fibrous nonwoven fabric exhibiting an optical transmittance of 40 to 83% as the outermost sheet constituting an outer sheet of the article in order to ensure cloth-like appearance and touch and film printed with multicolored picture and fixed to the inner surface of the above-mentioned nonwoven fabric so that the picture can be seen through the nonwoven fabric.
The decorative element such as picture should be seen through the outer sheet as clearly as possible in order to improve its design effect and this can be achieved by improving an optical transmittance of the fibrous nonwoven fabric used as the outer sheet adapted to cover the decorative element from outside. However, higher the optical transmittance of the nonwoven fabric, higher a see-through clarity of the nonwoven fabric is. In consequence, the wearer's body would be too distinctively seen through the nonwoven fabric. If fibrous nonwoven fabric exhibiting a relatively low optical transmittance is used to avoid this inconvenience, the see-through clarity for the decorative element would be unacceptably deteriorated. In this manner, selection of the optical transmittance to be exhibited by the fibrous nonwoven fabric constituting the outermost surface of the article necessarily encounters a problem of antinomy.